has anyone given up their mini van for a small car?

I went from a minivan to a Honda CRV - I didn't want to be low down either and I wanted space to carry my scrap stuff when I went to a crop. I get between 24 and 27 mpg depending on how much highway driving I do.

I went from a minivan to a Malibu. It feels very small and cozy, and low to the ground. Visibility (my looking out) is not as good. The visibility might be because the newer cars have thicker 'supports' between the windows for safety reasons. That's what the sales person told me...

I miss the space a little, but not a great deal. Yes, mileage is better.

My Honda Odyssey blew it's transmission on 7/3; it wasn't worth repairing since the van was just shy of 250k miles. I bought a used 2012 Accord that is almost identical to the one DH drives. I like it, it drives great, and it gets great gas mileage, but I miss my van. We have no other large vehicle, so I will have to rent something when i make my trips to Home Depot or for Rabbit compost. I wish I could have justified fixing it, but I knew that there were to many things that could go wrong soon to justify the $4k the repair would have cost.

Marcy

Don't do it! We had to ditch my '02 Odyssey due to transmission issues and I seriously cried getting rid of it. It's been over a year and I still miss the old girl. I only have two kids, but I loved the cargo capacity or that I could tote extra kids when needed.

DD had a bonfire for her birthday at the beach and we had to take two cars to fit everything we had to take (tables, wood, ice chest, etc.). I got a used PT Cruiser (rushed decision) to replace the van and I hate it! You have to make sure to clear things out before heading to the grocery store and even then the cargo space is small! The gas mileage is comparable to a van I think which is surprising since it's not that big of a car.

DH has an '07 Prius so luckily we both agreed to rent a car for vacation. Even with a bigger trunk, we barely had room for all our stuff.

Renting a van for a week is about $700. We opted for a sedan instead. If I had a chance to get another van, I would do it in a heartbeat!

My kids are teens now (17-driving, we share a car, and 14) but I still would love another van.

Sharla-do you know something about them or is it just that it's obvious that going from a van to cruiser is not a good idea?

If you live nearby, I would love to take that Sienna off your hands.

I agree Sharla. I found out after the fact that they were made to be fleet vehicles. Makes sense since everything on it seems cheap. 14 yo DS told me not to buy it. I should've listened. I might give it to DD and get me something else.

My FIL said he rented one and they are fun to drive...umm no, since you about get killed sometimes with its horrible turning radius. It does have cute body styling though.

We went from a Sienna to a Kia Soul. We have no kids at home now. I have enjoyed going to something smaller. The gas mileage is great! We drove the Sienna for 14 years and had 277,000 miles on it.

I do miss having room for hauling things, but otherwise love my smaller ride!

I really like the Grand Cherokee, and I currently drive a Sienna. LOL Do you like the Jeep?

I really like the four door mini Coopers, but I don't travel light and know I couldn't fit one bag in there.

ETA: dh has a Ford F150 so we do have one big car.

I loved my minivans, I had two Ford Windstars. My DH traded the last one for a Ford 500. I like the 500 but still miss my "mommy van"...

I went from a Honda Odyssey to a Honda Civic due to transmission issues on the Odyssey. I was really sad about it because I'd had the van for 10 years and was hoping to at least get through the last year of having a kid at elementary school (with all those carpools) before getting something more fuel efficient.

The hardest thing to get used to was riding so low to the ground. Hate it. The front seats are ok, but I miss the center console and I'm pretty sure my teenage boys (2) still aren't thrilled with the backseat when we go somewhere together. It does make carpools more of a pain, because I can't take whoever needs a ride, I have to count heads in advance now.

The trunk is adequate (we got a hybrid, so the trunk is smaller than a regular car as well). I can make everything fit on a grocery run (even with a bin for jumper cables, etc.), but for a Costco run, I end up using the back seat for the paper towels/tp/etc.

I do love the gas milage (went from 17 to 41-ish) so there is that.

I do not feel as safe in my small car as I do in a minivan. And love all the space in a minivan. I think we will always have a minivan. Ours has been a workhorse and the ride cannot be matched.

I just got rid of my van for a small SUV, so I can't speak to that yet, but I can tell you that for the past month all we have had for four of us is our Honda Fit. We went to Costco in that bad boy and it worked. They have unbelievable cargo space in them. It's weird. But the back seat is even comfy for adults, and just this afternoon I folded the seat down and picked up my kid and her bike with a flat tire. She has a 26" bike without the ability to remove the front tire, and we still got it in the car with little effort. Any way. We get about 40mpg and I use it mainly for my commute but it's been a fantastic car.

My only complaint is that the car takes too long to cool off IMO (but we live in the desert) and my kids often complain about it, so I try to park in shade (hard to come by) when I can.

about 15 years ago we went from a dodge caravan to a dodge neon. I loved (still own) that little car. 35mpg and we call it the dodge neon 4x4. We'd load that car up with everything you could imagine. We even once brought home (45 miles) a 12 foot roll of carpet. LOL. I've never missed that old van much. I was just thinking today that the only thing I liked about it was the 3 rows of seats. We could take more people places but in reality we didn't do that much.